Common Shortcut Keys

It's hard to remember all the shortcut keys out there. But luckily, most programs adopt conventions (like Ctrl+S, which always saves what you're working on). Even better, programmers typically choose shortcut keys mnemonically (again, like Ctrl+S for Save) to make it easier for us to remember.

Below are some of the most common shortcut keys out there, grouped by task. We've also included some common scenarios to show how keyboard shortcuts can be practically used. It's a long list, but remember to start small: memorize just 3 shortcut keys that you'll use the most.

• Web Browsers
• Editing Text
• Moving the Cursor and Selecting Text
• Using the Clipboard
• Documents and Files
• Windows
• Conclusion

Web Browsers

Shortcut Keys

Ctrl+N	Open a new window
Ctrl+T	Open a new tab (if your browser supports tabs)
Ctrl+W	Close the current window/tab
Ctrl+R	Refresh
Esc	Stop
Alt+←	Back
Alt+→	Forward
PageUp	Move up a page
PageDown	Move down a page
Alt+Home	Go to your homepage
Alt+D	Move focus to the address bar to type in a URL
Ctrl+Enter	Add "http://www." and ".com" around an address
MiddleClick	Middle-clicking a tab will close it, even if it's not the active tab

Scenario: Open a website in a new window

Ctrl+N to open a new window Alt+D to bring you to the address bar Type the address without the "http://www." or the ".com" (for example, "microsoft" instead of "http://www.microsoft.com" Press Ctrl+Enter to add in the "http://www." and the ".com"

Editing Text

Shortcut Keys

Ctrl+B	Bold the selected text bold
Ctrl+I	Italicize the selected text italic
Ctrl+U	Underline the selected text
Ctrl+Backspace	Delete the previous word
Ctrl+Del	Delete the next word
Ctrl+F	Find some text in the current document
Ctrl+Z	Undo your last action

Scenario: Bold some text you are about to type

Ctrl+B to turn on the bold feature Type the text you want to be bold Ctrl+B to turn off the bold feature

Moving the Cursor and Selecting Text

Pay close attention to these! These shortcut keys can be used in almost all text editors, like Notepad, your instant messaging program, and any text input dialog boxes in Windows.

Moving the Cursor

PageUp	Move the cursor up a page
PageDown	Move the cursor down a page
Home	Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
End	Move the cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+Home	Move the cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+End	Move the cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl+←	Move the cursor left one word
Ctrl+→	Move the cursor right one word

The shortcut keys for selecting text are directly related to those that move the cursor around. Just add a Shift:

Selecting Text

Shift+PageUp	Select everything between the cursor and a page previous
Shift+PageDown	Select everything between the cursor and a page after
Shift+Home	Select everything between the cursor and the beginning of the line
Shift+End	Select everything between the cursor and the end of the line
Shift+Ctrl+Home	Select everything betweeen the cursor and the beginning of the document
Shift+Ctrl+End	Select everything between the cursor and the end of the document
Shift+Ctrl+←	Select the word to the left
Shift+Ctrl+→	Select the word to the right

Scenario: Selecting A Line Of Text

Home to move the cursor to the beginning of the line Shift-End to move the cursor to the end of the line and select everything alonig the way

Using the Clipboard

Ctrl+C	Copy what's selected
Ctrl+X	Cut what's selected
Ctrl+V	Paste what you last copied or cut
Ctrl+A	Select all

Documents and Files

Ctrl+N	Create a new document
Ctrl+O	Open an existing document
Ctrl+W	Close the current document
Ctrl+S	Saves the current document
Ctrl+P	Print the current document

Windows

Alt+F4	Exit the active window
Alt+Tab	Switch to the previous active window
Alt+Esc	Cycle through all open windows
Win+D	Show desktop (hit it again to show windows)

Conclusion

There are a huge amount of shortcut keys to take advantage of. Take it slow and learn 3 of these every few days. I recommend learning Ctrl+S to save files, Ctrl+C to copy what's selected, and Alt+Tab to switch between windows.

-Ben